Charlie Brear Separates for a Springtime Highland wedding

Over the years we’ve featured a fair few weddings photographed by the talented The Curries so it’s with great delight that we’re sharing this wedding today.

Specialising in documentary-style photography, The Curries have captured the romance and fun of Lorna and Grant’s wedding, as well as the beauty of the majestic Scottish highlands, wonderfully.

Lorna, a facialist and Grant, who runs his own digital product development studio returned to their Highland roots for their marriage on 8 April 2017. Their springtime celebration was full of fresh flowers, foliage, romance and fun. After a service in a local parish church, the festivities continued with a marquee reception, complete with ceilidh, in the pretty village of Spean Bridge, near Fort William.

“We wanted the day to be a relaxed, beautiful and fun spring party with lots of greenery in the flowers, prosecco flowing, amazing food and of course an excellent ceilidh into the wee hours. We are both originally from Fort William, nestled at the foot of Ben Nevis, so we wanted to get married around there as it truly is one of the most beautiful places in the world.”

Photography by The Curries

Lorna was a regular visitor to Love My Dress during her wedding planning, and the couple found their photographers on the blog.

“I loved reading the real wedding features while planning my own wedding – it is such an incredible source of inspiration. I first saw The Curries’ work featured on Love My Dress and was drawn to their style straight away.”“When I saw that they were Glasgow-based (although now based in London) I knew it was a sign. When we first met the lovely Chris and Gill we knew these were the guys for us. Not only are they fantastic photographers, they are the nicest people you will ever meet; it was like having old friends with us.

The Curries did such a fantastic job of capturing the stunning scenery we were very lucky to have as the backdrop for our photos.”

Lorna looks so elegant in her romantic pure white Charlie Brear bridal separates. I love the low back and scalloped lace cap sleeves of the overlay.

“I’d always been a fan of Charlie Brear’s beautiful designs. Lamesley Bridal in Edinburgh is one of only two bridal shops in Scotland which stock Charlie Brear and I had heard great things about their service so I knew visiting there was a must. I knew pretty quickly that a Charlie Brear dress was the type of dress for me. You can basically ‘build’ your own wedding dress made up of under-dresses, over-dresses, skirts and tops. Carly at Lamesley Bridal guided me every step of the way and was such a calming presence.”

“I eventually decided on the Payton dress with the Catroux lace skirt and top and the Hurrel sash. All of this was altered by Lamesley Bridal’s fantastic seamstress. I felt amazing in my dress all day and night.”

A touch of modernity was added by Lorna’s scalloped, metallic ‘Lauren’ pumps from Chloé but my eye was immediately caught by the glamour of her incredible drop earrings from Jules Bridal Jewellery.

Lorna’s hair was caught back into a sleek bun and accessorised with a cluster of ranunculus blooms – so pretty and romantic.

“I did a ‘Scent Your Wedding’ experience with Jo Malone in Edinburgh with some of my bridesmaids a few months before the wedding. I already had a signature scent which I wear on a daily basis so I wanted a new scent for the wedding that would always remind me of the wedding whenever I wore it. I chose a mixture of scents from Jo Malone – English Pear & Freesia layered over Wood Sage & Sea Salt.

This was such a fun experience and I would recommend it to any bride who is thinking about a new fragrance for their wedding.”

Lorna and Grant met when they were both at home for holidays from university in Glasgow.

“Grant and I are originally from Fort William and both moved to Glasgow for university but never actually knew each other until one summer while we were at home for the holidays and met in a pub in Fort William. Two mutual friends introduced us that night as they thought we would get on well; luckily they were right!”

“By the April of our wedding we had been together for eight years. We got engaged in November 2015 when Grant got down on one knee on the beautiful Camusdarach Beach on the north west coast of Scotland.”

The bridesmaids’ pretty pink and gold outfits are so lovely for a spring wedding, and just the right length for dancing.

“My bridesmaids were all so lovely and laid back and we pretty quickly decided we liked the idea of a top and midi skirt outfit. We found a cropped sequinned and beaded top at TFNC London so I bought four of those and just hoped that we would find a skirt to match.”

“This was more of a challenge and in the end we used a local seamstress who made our skirts for us. My brilliant sister-in-law and bridesmaid helped me choose all of the material from Mandors in Glasgow to make our perfect tulle midi skirts. They turned out better than we could have imagined and the bridesmaids received so many compliments on the day about their gorgeous outfits.”

With such a statement top, the bridesmaids needed few accessories apart from their pretty Accessorize earrings which Lorna gifted to them and their beautiful, ribboned bouquets.

In true Scottish fashion, Grant and his groomsmen wore full Highland dress, with the groom and his father’s kilts made by MacGregor & MacDuff in Glasgow. I love the simple buttonholes which lighten up their jackets.

“The best men and ushers each wore their own kilts. We requested this as we knew they would all look fantastic in their different tartans. They all look so great in the photos of them all walking to the church together in the morning in their various tartans.”

Lorna entered the church on the arm of her mum, to an acoustic version of ‘Here Comes The Sun‘ by George Harrison.

“As my amazing dad sadly passed away a few years before our wedding, my equally amazing mum walked me down the aisle. She also did a fantastic speech before the meal and we couldn’t be more proud of how brave (and funny!) she was.”

“Grant’s cousin read the fantastic ‘I Wanna Be Yours‘ by John Cooper Clarke. It’s not an easy reading to do but she did it so well as we knew she would! Grant and I have been a fan of John Cooper Clarke for many years and have been to see him live a few times so we knew straight away that this would be one of our readings.

Our second reading was by one of my best friends; a psalm that has a lot of special meaning to my family so it was an emotional reading.”

Their wedding bands were made by Glasgow jeweller Blair and Sheridan, who were also the source of Lorna’s engagement ring.

After the ceremony, Lorna and Grant made the most of the glorious weather to have their newly-wed pictures taken. I love these images so much; the Curries have done a fantastic job of capturing the awe-inspiring mountains and the joy of the couple too.

“Somehow we were exceptionally lucky with the weather. We had thought: “It’s the North West of Scotland in April, it WILL rain and we’re ok with that” but on the morning of the wedding we woke to perfect blue sky, glorious sunshine and being able to see the surrounding mountains in all their glory.”

The couple were keen to put their own creative stamp on the day, so a marquee was the ideal choice.

“We wanted to have our wedding our way so we didn’t go with a venue, but put up a marquee in a field in the village of Spean Bridge, surrounded by the breathtaking scenery of the Highlands for our reception. We held our ceremony in a local parish church also surrounded by the hills and glens.”

Lorna and Grant really transformed the blank canvas of the marquee with dramatic garlands of fresh foliage, opulent pink flowers and beautifully calligraphied signage. Their florist, Sparrow and Rose, was found through The Wedding Collective.

“I had a vision of lots of hanging foliage and string lights in the marquee to create a sort of garden party vibe and wanted to work with a florist who could create gorgeous natural flowers with lots of greenery. I gave Lisa a vague idea of what I was looking for and then just trusted her to create something stunning on the day.”

“Lisa did our bouquets, button holes, the simply stunning floral archway we got married under in the church, and all the table flowers and hanging foliage in the marquee. It was all so beautiful.”

Lorna got creative with her favours.

“We provided different flavoured liqueurs in little glass jars for our favours –Edinburgh Gin Raspberry liqueur and Edinburgh Gin Elderflower liqueur. I added tags with instructions to each of the little glass jars – shot it in one or mix into a glass of prosecco.”

Food and music were of utmost importance to the couple, and the couple chose one catering company to provide all of the food throughout the wedding party.

“The brilliant En Croute Catering from Glasgow travelled up to Spean Bridge to provide all of our drinks reception canapés, the wedding meal and run our evening bar for us. They were simply perfect; complete professionals, so friendly and everything worked like clockwork. All the guests were raving about the food, particularly our gluten-free guests who were really well looked after with their own individual canapé platters brought to them during the drinks reception.”

The elegant, hand-written table plans, menus and orders of service are the work of E.Y.i. Love, who we are so proud to feature on Little Book for Brides. If you like this style then please be sure to head to this Love My Dress feature to see more of their designs.

“Music has always been such a huge part of mine and Grant’s relationship, I’ve lost count of the number of gigs we’ve been to together. We struggled at first with a first dance track. In the end we chose Neil Young’s ‘Harvest Moon’ as it’s a beautiful song that was easy and enjoyable to slow dance to. We spent many, many nights in the run up to the wedding planning the perfect Spotify playlists for every part of the day.”

Words of Wedded Wisdom

“Try and spend some time alone with your husband after the ceremony, just to catch your breath and savour the moment of realising you’re actually married. We really enjoyed going off together for our photos after the ceremony but we also made a pit stop at Grant’s mum and dad’s house before arriving at the drinks reception. I’m so glad we had even just those few minutes alone together.”

“We were initially against the idea of doing a line-up before the meal as we thought it was a bit traditional and dated but my mum persuaded us it would be a good idea and I’m so glad we did it! It was probably the only occasion we got to speak to every single guest and that was so special. The day really does go by so fast and it’s difficult to speak to all of your guests so we would really recommend doing a line-up if you are having quite a large wedding.”

Lorna and Grant, sending you so many congratulations and thanks for sharing your beautiful Highland wedding with us. You really were so lucky with the clear weather, and to have chosen such brilliant wedding photographers. If you’d like to see more of The Curries’ work then we have lots of wedding captured by them for you to enjoy here.

Ele xx